Consonants

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• Rows of consonants differ in point of articulation, meaning where in the mouth from front to back the blockage or restriction in airflow occurs.​

  • Row 1 are pronounced between the upper lip and either the lower lip or the lower teeth, sounding much the same as they do in English and most European languages.

  • Row 2 are pronounced with the tip of the tongue between the teeth. Th is always like the one in "thing" and Dh is the sound of the "th" in "that". The rest sound much the same as they do in English and most European languages.

  • Row 3 are pronounced with the tip of the tongue behind the lower teeth, but relaxed and the point on the tongue behind the tip raised up against the alveolar ridge behind them, sounding much the same as they do in English and most European languages. R is trilled as in Spanish.

  • Row 4 are like row 3 in tongue position, but the air issues around the side of the tongue instead of over the tip, like in the pronunciation of L, but with much greater restriction and hissing or buzzing noise. Lh and Tl are just like Navajo "ł" in "ło" (fish) and "tł" in "tł'ee" (night) and are not voiced. Lz and Dl are like a very fricative (noisy) version of Navajo l and dl respectively. L is just like it sounds in English.

  • Row 5 are pronounced with the tongue low, except for the tip being raised to press against the alveolar ridge, making sounds more hollow, darker and less palatal than in English, closer to the tongue-curled-backward pronunciation of retroflex consonants in Hindi. Zh is like the "s" in "version".

  • Row 6 are pronounced between the back of the tongue and the soft palate or back roof of the mouth. If you say English K, then you have the right position. Kh is like "ch" in German "buch" and Gh is the same, but with voice behind it, like the modern Greek buzzing pronunciation of the letter gamma, but unlike Greek it is not palatalized or Y-colored. Nh sounds like English "ng" in "song".

  • Row 7 are pronounced by constricting the upper throat, and simultaneously rounding the lips in the same manner as English "w" in "wall". Rw is like saying W while narrowing the throat without buzzing.

  • Row 8: Fricative [h is like "h" in English, but more constricted at the larynx (voicebox). [ is the glottal stop and is explained in the next section.

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• Columns of consonants differ in manner of articulation. meaning such things as voicing, level or sequence of obstruction, and nasality.

  • Column 1 are pronounced ​without voice by total obstruction of the airway. P, T, K, and Qw are aspirated stops, meaning the obstruction is released with a small open "h" sound. Ts, Tl and Ch are affricates, meaning the obstruction is released with S, Lh, or Sh, respectively.

  • Column 2 are just like Column 1, but with voice behind them.

  • Column 3 are voiceless fricatives, sounding like airflow or hissing.

  • Column 4 are voiced fricatives with a buzzing sound.

  • Column 5 are sonorants. M, N, Y, and L should be natural for English speakers. R, Nh, and Rw are explained above under rows 3, 6,  and 7.

  • [ is the symbol used here for the glottal stop, such as occurs between the two nasal schwa vowels in in the English vocalization "uhn-uh", a slang synonym for "no". It also occurs in Hawaiian "A'a" and the native pronunciation of "Hawai'i", where it is represented in writing by a reversed apostrophe. A third example is the English London-Cockney pronunciation of the double t in "matter". Also, in the film Avatar, one can hear this in the pronunciation of the name of the sentient race on Pandora, Na'vi. In Tultarezh, this glottal stop sounds like a short cough when it occurs before a vowel and any consonant before it will be ejected from the tongue first, before the cough. After a vowel and before a consonant, however, the airstream is merely stopped and then reopened for the vowel, without a definite coughing sound.

Vowels​

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• A sounds like English "ah"​ or the O in English "pot"

• Aa sounds like A in English "cat"

• I sounds I in English "pit"

• Ii sounds like EE in English "beet"

• E sounds like the E in "pet"

• Ae Sounds like the A in "make"

• O is darker and rounder than English O, more like Russian, Italian or New York O

• Oe sounds like the Ö in German "schön"

• Lw as a vowel sounds like the final Le in "Little"

• Rh as a vowel sounds like the American English expletive of uncertainty "Er" and is not trilled like the consonant R

• U is darker and rounder than English U, more like Russian or Italian U

• Ue sounds like the Ü in german "grün" or UE in French "rue"

 

Word Stress​​

• ​The loudest or stressed vowel in a word will be marked with a circumflex accent mark ˆ like ê. It is usually the second to last vowel as in Italian.​​ Some suffixes, however are stress-attracting, meaning they draw the stress to themselves. So "khêled târash" for "rockiest delvings" but "khêlad tarashûm" for "under the  rockiest delvings", since the post-positional suffix "-ûm" meaning "under", positioned on the end of adjective "târash" or "rockiest", must always be stressed. In Tultarezh adjectives fall after the noun, as is usual in Spanish. Do not worry at this time about the change from E to A in the "khêled" or "delvings" as that is a matter of grammatical case or part of speech. Just be aware that the accented vowel is the loudest in a word, usually on the second to last syllable, and that the accent can move around if the word gets longer or aquires a suffix.​​​

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Intonation

• Sentence-level intonation expresses emotional attitude toward the listener or toward what is being said, such as surprise, interest, anger, emphasis, joy, sarcasm, irony, sadness or neutrality, and will follow an Intonation Contour (IC):

IC1: Neutral emotion - voice begins high and falls to the midpoint on the stressed syllable of the first word, dropping to low on the last stressed syllable of the sentence.

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IC2: Surprise or curiosity – voice begins low and rises to high on the stressed syllable of either the first word or an emotionally charged word, dropping to mid-level immediately afterwards. This pitch contour often occurs with questions, as the speaker is often interested in or curious to learn the answer, but is not required in an emotionally neutral question. Questions are indicated by an interrogative prefix on the word in question and on the verb if the entire statement is in question.

 

IC3: Anger, or emphatic charge – voice begins mid and drops to low on the stressed syllable of either the first word or an emotionally charged word, returning to mid immediately afterwards.

 

IC4: Joy or positive excitement – voice bounces between high and mid on the stressed syllable of every word, going even higher on emotionally charged words, then returning to mid on the next. Speech sounds jumpy and singsong.

 

IC5: Sarcasm, irony, mocking irritation or condescension – voice begins mid, rises to high on the stressed syllable of either the first word or an emotionally charged word, returning to mid immediately afterwards.

 

IC6: Grief, fear or Sadness – voice begins mid pitch and drops to low monotone on the first stressed syllable for the remainder of the sentence.

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• Emphasis of a particular word in a sentence is also usually marked with the prefix ja-.